Rich and Famous?

An assembly from the Culham St Gabriel archive

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider that who we are is more important than what we do.

Preparation and materials

• You will need to be familiar with the Bible story of the widow’s offering, which can be found in Mark 12.41-44.

Assembly

1. Ask the children if they can name any famous people and describe why they are famous. It is likely that most suggestions will be celebrities, such as football players and pop stars. Establish that many of these people are famous because they have special gifts or talents.

2. Ask the children whether they think most of the famous people mentioned are rich or poor. Most of them will be rich!

3. Explain that you are going to read a well-known story from the Bible. In a sense, the woman in the story is famous because her story is still told all over the world.
   
   Read the story of the widow’s offering, which is found in Mark 12.41-44.

4. Ask the children if they can tell you the name of the famous woman in the story. Establish that we don’t know her name.

5. Ask the children if the woman in the story was rich or poor. Remind the children of the famous people whom they named at the start of the assembly. Establish that, although most of these people are rich, many of the most famous and influential people in the world have not been rich at all. Like the woman in the story, they are famous for what they do, not for how much money they have. At this stage, children may be encouraged to suggest other people in this category, such as Mother Teresa.

6. Ask the children if they would like to be famous one day. Ask what they would like to be famous for doing.
   
   - Perhaps they have a special gift for sport or music.
   - Perhaps they want to be famous so that they can have a lot of money.
   
   Remind the children of the woman in the story. Jesus said that she gave the greatest gift of all, yet we don’t even know her name.

Time for reflection

Ask the children to sit quietly and think about the story that they have heard.

Ask them to think about any special gifts they might have and how they could use their gifts to help others.

After a short silence, ask the children to listen again to the end of the story.

‘The rich people gave God what they could easily afford. It didn’t cost them anything . . . they still had plenty left for themselves. The widow gave all that she had. She kept nothing back for herself. That’s what God calls the biggest gift of all.’

Prayer
Dear God,
Please help us to be generous people.
Please help us to share our possessions and our talents to help others.
Help us to use the gifts that we have been given.
Amen.

Song/music

‘The best gift’ (Come and Praise, 59)

Follow-up ideas

Art and design or History. Make a montage of the names of famous people who have lived during the twentieth or twenty-first century.

English. Write a story about ‘someone nameless’ who does something special.

Religious education. Listen to and discuss stories from the Bible about people we remember, but whose name we are not told. Examples could be the good Samaritan, the woman who touched Jesus’ coat and the people who let down their friend through the roof of a house so that Jesus would heal him.